when use bass FX?

After listening to several live recordings of our band, i'm trying to figure out whether bass FX are that useful.

Now my phaser is nicely noticable (esp. on "solo" parts), but against 2 loud distorted guitars my delay and distortion is barely noticable.

It seems pointless to use dist. to boost in chorus/heavy pieces 'cause you never seem to hear it. Is there any point in emphasising parts, or should I simply be running with distortion on always (assuming i'm after a dirty sound here)?

I'm almost ready to cull my effects back to nothing if they're not doing anything in the mix! What do you people out there do?

A phasor? That'd be interesting i reckon, i don't use any effects. We have it up so loud that my bass distorts anyway, and i never used my Wah pedal that i built much. Everyone else kept borrowing cause i wasn't using it.

It's not so much whether to use effects - it's whether they are noticable.

I mean I cannot hear any difference (in my bass part) when I boost during a chorus/bridge/whatever from listening to recordings. Of course, live I can hear something, but generally the soundman will have a compressor insert on my channel keeping things in the green, again losing any impact the boost has...

I guess the upshot of the question really is : is it worthwhile boosting the bass part for emphasis?

Clean or Synthed Envelope Filter for guitar steady songs; EH Bass Micro Synth> EH Q-tron+ w/BassBalls in loop. It took a while to find a good setup and I'm still looking for the perfect Envelope Filter/Follower.

Heavily Distorted (you probably don't need it with two Guitars I'd use it lightly for a boost for better cut) for when the guitarist is an @$$; Ampeg SVP-BSP or an Ibanez Phat Hed.

Soon I'm going to add an EH Stereo Poly Chorus to the set, I may get a Phaser the vintage ones I own are good for recording but not very dependable live.

I think adding distortion to a song that has 2 distorted guitars going loudly is pointless. Don't get me wrong I like and use distortion, but with 2 loud guitars playing with full on distortion the impact of the bass distortion gets lost. In my opinion, distortion works better in a band with 1 guitarist, or in a band that has two guitarists and one plays with a relatively clean tone.

As for delay and a phaser I use both of those as well. Delay is hard to work in, but can get an echoy-reverb tone if set right, I use mine more on ballad type songs than rock songs. I think a phaser can fit in anywhere, and I love how my MXR Phase 90 and my Boss ODB-3 sound together.

I hate the 2 guitars thing the bassist gets lost in the mix, I quit a band because of too many members get this; two vocalist, a trumpeter, a tromboner (hehe), DJ, Percussionist (i.e. Bongos), drummer and me the bassist, sounds like the making of a good jazz band (except the DJ) but no they were trying to sound like a dub regee/hih-hop band, good by. I am working on a project now simple 7-string Guitar, 5-String Bass (me),10-piece Drums, 61-note keyboard and a Vocalist (he actually has a good voice) setup, we're getting a TOOLish sound but we're striving to be as unique as posible to separate ourselves from the local Punk and Hip-hop Rock scene (it's a real b*tch song writing). Sorry for going off topic.